1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a content printing system, a print relay system, and a control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional system, in which a client transmits a print instruction to a server and the server converts content to be printed into print data according to the received instruction, has been used. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-196054 discusses a method in which a server receives a print instruction and information for controlling printing from a client and generates print data based on the print control information. The server according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-196054 provides a service for generating the print data to the client.
As described above, a conventional method in which a server provides a service to a client has been used. Cloud computing, which has been recently used, is one of the methods in which a server provides a service to a client. A cloud computing method characteristically executes data conversion and data processing in a distributed manner by using a large number of computing resources to implement simultaneous processing of requests input from a large number of clients.
Recently, various vendors provide diverse services by using a web service implemented on a cloud computing environment, which implements the above-described cloud computing. Among the various vendors, Google® attracts much attention.
Google® has executed active marketing. More specifically, Google® has established a large number of large data centers and is proposing a service provided in interlock with a device. In addition, Google® has developed a method for implementing data communication between the device and its service environment.
More specifically, Google® has developed a method for executing data communication for providing a service in interlock with an image forming apparatus. Furthermore, Google® has published an interface for executing data communication between an image forming apparatus and a cloud computing environment provided by Google®.
If the interface is implemented on an image forming apparatus, it becomes unnecessary to install a printer driver on a client as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-196054. In addition, if the interface is implemented on an image forming apparatus, even when the image forming apparatus and the server are connected to each other via the Internet, the user can designate an image forming apparatus from the client to cause the designated image forming apparatus to execute printing.